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Web Searching Is a Quest
For Knowledge, Not Data

By

Jason Fry The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition

Updated June 9, 1998 12:01 a.m. ET

S OMETIMES THE WEB reminds me a lot of my late grandfather: He knew an astonishing amount about everything in the world from ancient rug-making to farming to physics, but when asked a simple question was as hard to pin down as a pup that didn't want a bath. I learned to craft my queries very carefully, steering between the twin dangers of being informed that my question was wrong (or wrong-headed) and being buried in an explanation that was...